On the Side

When one player showed up at an online tournament the other day, we simply couldn't resist making a farewell comment about his name....


paragod83 eliminated from the tournament (he/she has lost all his/her chips)
Me: Better to worship God than a para-god.

We took the player's name to mean something along the lines of a half-god.  But a strict Webster's dictionary definition really is different.  "Para-" as a prefix can mean "beside, alongside...." as in para-professionals working with teachers in a school.  It also can mean "in a secondary or accessory capacity" in the world of medicine.

The more we've thought about it, the more ashamed we are about what we wrote.  After all, who could be better to have alongside you than God?  Consider....

If the Lord had not been on our side when men attacked us, when their anger flared against us, they would have swallowed us alive.... the raging waters would have swept us away. - Psalm 124:2-5

As we mentioned in our last post, many believers have seen the intervening hand of God at difficult moments in their lives.

But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.  And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. - II Timothy 4:17

Based on the surrounding verses, we think Paul was using a figure of speech when he wrote about a lion's mouth.  But Jesus Christ indicated God really can be alongside you -- and even closer:

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever -- the Spirit of truth.  The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. -- John 14:17

So we apologize to "Paragod83."  And we hope you'll ask God to come alongside you, and even dwell in you through the Holy Spirit -- even when it's poker night.